From the outside in – A recruiter’s journey from agency to internal recruitment functions.....

Courtney Sertdemir joined us as an Internal Recruiter 10 months ago and here, our little ray of “sunshine” explains her journey.

I think it was about two years into my recruitment career, when I was starting to feel more established and confident in my role that I began considering the move into internal recruitment, or as agency recruiters call it, moving to the “dark side”.

More and more I started to wonder about the people I spoke to on the phone, what exactly were Talent Acquisition specialists or Internal Recruiters accountable for? Was their day just like mine? Did they have as many vacancies to fill? Was there any difference working internally? Did they have strict KPI’s?

So I started to look around. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job but thought why not see what’s out there! So, like every semi passive/ semi active candidate I’ve ever met with, I tried my luck and became one too.

Courtney climbing the corporate ladder! 

To start off, it’s a tough gig trying to get an internal role, why? Because just like me there are plenty of agency recruiters thinking the same thing about their career. So, you’re now competing against every other agency recruiter out there. I mean, you already vie for jobs and candidates in the market but now its recruiter against recruiter on the same catwalk trying to be “internals next top model.”

Now, I know what people think about agency recruiters going internal, we are over it; over the sales targets, KPI’s and cold calls. Yes, for some this is the case but for me, I enjoyed all those things, I just didn’t enjoy sending out non relevant resumes just to meet my quota, I didn’t enjoy doing whatever it takes to get a placement across the line, even if it challenged your own ethics. Unlike some of my peers, I didn’t see candidates as a dollar sign.

What I did want was to be a brand ambassador, a true subject matter expert. Why work 20 roles with multiple clients when I can work 20 jobs with one brand. You start to want to make a difference on a more personal level, you become an integral part of the organisation, believing in what you do and why you do it.

So, eventually your times comes and you land your internal dream job. Its everything you had hoped it would be and nothing like you thought it would be! For me I think the hardest thing to get used to was the silence - no radio, no bell rings and no consultants yelling over each other on the phone. Because that’s all we really did at the agency, we lived on the phone – sales, sales, sales.

You start to learn new things too; you recruit for roles you have never recruited for before – even ones you never knew existed! You have meetings with GM’s, you start truly caring about the commercial elements of running a successful business, like strategy and team member on boarding. You learn more about HR processes and work force planning.

But ultimately I got what I really wanted, a chance to place people in their dream job, a company culture to live and breathe, a chance to learn more about how a business operates from a Support Office point of view, to create long lasting partnerships and to be a trusted advisor.

So far, it’s been an amazing journey and I wouldn’t change a thing, except for maybe putting a radio in the office!